Duke wins series opener at Miami

Duke’s baseball team started the weekend on the right note — but so did Virginia, so the Blue Devils haven’t moved back into the lead of the ACC’s Coastal Division.

The Blue Devils won the series opener at Miami 5-3 on Thursday night, coming back from a two-run deficit by scoring a run in each of the last four innings.

Duke (35-17, 16-11 ACC) moves ahead of Miami (35-18, 16-12) in the Coastal Division, but still trails Virginia (17-11 in ACC) by the same ½-game margin with which it entered the week. The Cavaliers won at Georgia Tech 12-5 on Thursday night.

The Blue Devils’ series-opening win was sparked by Andrew Fischer’s solo home run in the sixth inning. Tyler Albright’s RBI double in the seventh tied the game at 3-3, and Giovani DiGiacomo delivered the go-ahead run with a single in the eighth.

Josh Solomon pinch-ran in the ninth and stole home on a double steal.

Alex Gow started on the mound for Duke and only gave up two hits in five innings; the problem was they were both homers. Zach Levenson hit a two-run homer in the second, and Yohandy Morales hit a solo homer in the fourth.

Otherwise, Gow had one walk and seven strikeouts. He was picked up by a three-man bullpen effort that combined to allow one hit and three walks across the last four innings. Charlie Bielenson pitched the sixth, Fran Oschell III (4-0) pitched the seventh and recorded an out in the eighth, and then James Tallon recorded the final five outs for his 11th save of the season.

All three relievers had three strikeouts each, giving the Blue Devils’ pitchers a combined 16 in the game.